Is Your Transcription Services Pricing Accurate? Is it According to Industry Norms?

Choosing transcription services for transcribing the recorded audio, video, speech, interviews and more is a viable option to reduce the time and money spent by your organization to implement transcription in-house. However, cost is an important factor and most service providers are not very clear about how they determine service charges. Itâ€™s important that you know about how much the service will cost before you sign up. You should make sure that the service rates are acceptable and that you are not spending more than you should. Otherwise, the very purpose of outsourcing your transcription tasks will be defeated. Here are six factors you need to enquire about before partnering with a transcription company.

Transcription Service Fee Structure – Ask the company whether they charge by the minute, hourly or monthly, and if they charge a minimum fee as additional cost or a fee for extras. Check whether the service charge is determined by the length of the content or the time taken to transcribe the content. For example, if the recorded speech is for one hour, are you charged for that one hour or the hours taken to transcribe the speech?

Voice Recognition Software or Traditional Transcription – Some outsourcing companies use voice recognition software for the entire transcription process while others have the documentation done by a professional transcription team. Though using speech recognition software may be cheaper, it has the limitation that it cannot recognize synonyms, names and other words when converting the recording into printed format. Accuracy is paramount when it comes to transcription. So you should make sure that you get value for money. An experienced team of transcriptionists working with latest technologies would serve you better.

Extra Cost for Editing or Correction – Some companies may have extra charges for editing and grammar correction. However, established transcription companies have stringent quality assurance processes, which include proofreading and editing, built into their service package and do not charge any extra for this.

Information on Project Details – A reliable service provider would want to know about your project and request information on the number of speakers, accent issues and more, so they can provide you with accurate transcripts. Ensure that you provide all the necessary information so that your project can be carried through successfully. Do not contract with a company that offers you lower rates without enquiring about such details.

Advanced Facilities – Ask whether the company can provide logo along with your transcript, unique brand layout and other advanced services (for instance, creating e-book for your content) rather than generating simple, plain transcripts. Of course, enquire about the additional charges for these services. Commit only if you find that the services are budget-friendly.